Last Four In: Nebraska, Hawaii, Ole Miss, South Florida
First Four Out: Creighton, Maryland, Louisiana Tech, Utah
If you like offensive softball, this week was a fantastic one. For the most part, teams were on fire offensively across the board. LSU bounced back from giving up nine runs at Mississippi State and put up 17 runs over three games in a hostile environment of Knoxville to win the Tennessee series two games to one. The Washington-Arizona series was insane offensively. The two teams combined for 65 runs and 71 hits. This series is further proof that life as a college softball pitching coach is quickly one of the most stressful jobs in all of college athletics. Minnesota made another statement by dominating Northwestern in a sweep that slowed down the roll that the Wildcats were on. UCF continues to dominate the American Athletic Conference as they now have 40 wins and have to be close to a lock to be one of the 16 host sites for the Regional round of the NCAA Tournament. Florida grinded out two tough wins over Kentucky, including a 1-0 win in game one over Kelsey Nunley of the Wildcats. Auburn and Alabama took care of their respective weeks to set up a fun Iron Bowl showdown, Softball edition. It should be a battle of two teams that are going to destroy the scoreboard all weekend long. Louisiana also reasserted itself on the national landscape with a two game sweep of Baylor and keep an eye on the Ragin’ Cajuns road trip to Eugene to take on the Ducks in a couple of weeks. If Louisiana can get a series win, that will help get back into the top eight national seed conversation.
See the Projected Softball NCAA Tournament Bracket
ACC: Florida State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Notre Dame, Louisville
American: South Florida, Tulsa, UCF
Big East: DePaul
Big 12: Baylor, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas
Big Ten: Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Nebraska, Rutgers
Pac-12: Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, UCLA, Washington, Oregon State, California
SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Ole Miss
A-10: Dayton
America East: Stony Brook
A-Sun: Kennesaw State, USC Upstate
Big Sky: Idaho State
Big South: Coastal Carolina
Big West: Cal State Northridge, Hawaii
CAA: James Madison
C-USA: UAB
Horizon: Youngstown State
Ivy: Dartmouth
MAAC: Iona
MAC: Kent State
MEAC: Bethune-Cookman
MVC: Drake
MWC: San Diego State
NEC: Bryant
OVC: Jacksonville State
Patriot: Lehigh
Southern: Chattanooga
Southland: Northwestern State
Summit: North Dakota State
Sun Belt: Louisiana, South Alabama
SWAC: Texas Southern
WAC: New Mexico State
WCC: BYU
See the Projected Softball NCAA Tournament Bracket
